The Cabin in the Woods
The Cabin in the Woods is a 2012 American horror comedy film directed by Drew Goddard in his directorial debut, produced by Joss Whedon, and written by Whedon and Goddard. The film stars Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, and Jesse Williams. Goddard and Whedon, having worked together previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, wrote the screenplay in three days, describing it as an attempt to "revitalize" the slasher film genre and as a critical satire on torture porn. Filming took place in Vancouver, British Columbia from March to May 2009 on an estimated budget of $30 million. The film premiered on March 9, 2012 at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas and was released in the United States on April 13, 2012. The film received positive reviews, featuring on Metacritic's best films of 2012 list, and grossed over $66 million worldwide. Contents * 1 Plot * 2 Cast * 3 Production * 4 Release ** 4.1 Home media * 5 Reception ** 5.1 Box office ** 5.2 Critical reaction ** 5.3 Awards and nominations * 6 Books * 7 Popular culture * 8 References * 9 External links Plotedit In the underground Facility, senior technicians Gary Sitterson and Steve Hadley discuss plans for a mysterious ritual. A similar operation undertaken by their counterparts in Stockholm has just ended in failure. American college students Dana Polk, Holden McCrea, Marty Mikalski, Jules Louden, and Curt Vaughan are spending their weekend at a seemingly deserted cabin in the forest. From the facility, Sitterson and Hadley manipulate them by intoxicating the teenagers with psychotropic drugs that hinder rational thinking and increase libido. They take bets from the different Facility departments on what kind of monster will attack the teenagers and discuss the failures of similar rituals in other nations. In the cabin's cellar, the group finds many bizarre objects, including the diary of Patience Buckner, a cabin resident abused by her sadistic family. Dana recitesincantations from the journal, inadvertently summoning the zombified Buckner family. By releasing pheromones, Hadley successfully induces Curt and Jules to have sex. Attacked by marauding Buckners, Jules is decapitated, but Curt escapes alerting everyone else. Marty, a frequent marijuana smoker, discovers concealed surveillance equipment before being dragged off by a Buckner. Later, the faculty workers discover that the ritual in Japan has also ended in failure, ending Japan's streak of success, and confirming that the American ritual is humanity's last hope. Curt, Holden, and Dana attempt escape in their RV, but Sitterson triggers a tunnel collapse to hinder their flight. Curt jumps a ravine on his motorcycle, only to crash into a camouflaged force shield. Holden and Dana retreat to the RV to re-evaluate, but within, one of the Buckners is waiting; he stabs Holden and the RV veers into a lake. Dana swims ashore and is beset in turn. As she is attacked, the staff celebrate her impending death and the successful completion of their ritual. The celebration is interrupted by a phone call from "upstairs" pointing out that Marty has survived. He rescues Dana and shows her an obscured elevator. They take the elevator into the facility, where a menagerie of monsters are imprisoned. Dana correlates them with the knickknacks in the cabin's basement and realizes that those items dictate which monster will be unleashed. Cornered by the facility's security, she and Marty release the monsters, who slaughter the staff. Dana and Marty discover a temple and are confronted by the project's Director. She explains that, every year, worldwide rituals are held to appease the Ancient Ones, malevolent beings living beneath the facility. The Ancient Ones are kept in perpetual slumber through an annual pars pro toto sacrifice of five young people embodying certain archetypes: the whore (Jules), the athlete (Curt), the scholar (Holden), the fool (Marty), and the virgin (Dana). The order in which intended victims perish is flexible, so long as the Whore dies first and the Virgin survives or dies last. The Director urges Dana to shoot Marty, completing the ritual and saving humanity, but the standoff is interrupted by more monsters, including Patience Buckner, who kills the Director. Concluding that humanity is not worth saving, Dana and Marty share a joint as an Ancient One stirs, destroying the Facility as its giant hand emerges from beneath the cabin. Castedit * Kristen Connolly as Dana Polk6789 * Chris Hemsworth as Curt Vaughan * Anna Hutchison as Jules Louden * Fran Kranz as Marty Mikalski * Jesse Williams as Holden McCrea * Richard Jenkins as Gary Sitterson, a technician who works at the Facility. * Bradley Whitford as Steve Hadley, a technician who works at the Facility. * Brian J. White as Daniel Truman, a security guard who works in the Facility's Control Room. * Amy Acker as Wendy Lin, a technician who works in the Facility's Chemical Department. * Sigourney Weaver as The Director, the leader of the Facility. * Tim de Zarn as Mordecai, the "Harbinger" who works for the Facility and operates from a nearby gas station. * Jodelle Ferland as Anna Patience Buckner * Matt Drake as Judah Buckner * Dan Payne as Mathew Buckner * Dan Shea as Father Buckner * Maya Massar as Mother Buckner * Tom Lenk as Ronald, an intern who works at the Facility. * Heather Doerksen as an accountant Productionedit With a production budget of $30 million, principal photography began on March 9, 2009 in Vancouver,10 and concluded in May 2009. Joss Whedon co-wrote the script with Cloverfield screenwriter Drew Goddard, who also directed the film, marking his directorial debut. Goddard previously worked with Whedon on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel as a writer. In November 2010, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, but the film was released as one of MGM's last pre-Spyglass films in development. Whedon described the film as an attempt to revitalize the horror genre which he, along with director/co-writer Goddard, felt had "devolved" with the introduction of "torture porn". He called it a "loving hate letter" to the genre, continuing: Concerning the sheer number of creatures to be designed and made for the film, AFX Studio's David LeRoy Anderson estimated that "close to a thousand" people were turned into one of around 60 different monster types.12 The task necessitated renting a much larger facility to use as a workspace, as a crew of around 60 people were recruited. The producers told them to commence work on December 15, 2008, ahead of the official January 1, 2009 start date. They only completed the work by the March 9, 2009 production date because, as Anderson stated "We had nearly seventy people at peak, but in effect we had a hundred and forty people, because everybody had at least two jobs...it was crazy, but people had an incredible time...none of us are ever going to forget it, and we're never all going to be in the same room again."13 The underground complex, elevators, and the control room were all sets, but for several wide shots, the British Columbia Institute of Technology's Aerospace building was used. Production designer Martin Whist referenced Stanley Kubrick and commented: "It's very high-tech industrial, and it's a brand new building, never been shot in before...I wanted elevators to be without any controls...to almost feel like a glamorized freight elevator...The lobby I wanted to look slightly utilitarian, contemporary and institutional...sharp and almost characterless."14 Goddard called the control room "mission control at NASA", with production design aimed at grounding the room's look in "the reality of governments and institutions". Releaseedit The Cabin in the Woods''advertisement on a London bus. ''The Cabin in the Woods was slated for wide release on February 5, 2010715 and then delayed until January 14, 2011 so the film could be converted to 3D.1617 However, on June 17, 2010, MGM announced that the film would be delayed indefinitely due to ongoing financial difficulties at the studio.1819 On March 16, 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported the following: "New (MGM) chief executives Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum are seeking to sell both Red Dawn and the horror film The Cabin in the Woods, the last two pictures produced under a previous regime, as they try to reshape the 87-year-old company."20 A distribution sale toLionsgate was announced on April 28, 2011,21 with some industry news outlets reporting plans for a Halloween 2011 release.22 On July 20, 2011, Lionsgate announced that they had acquired the distribution rights to the film and set a release date of April 13, 2012.23 Goddard described the deal as "a dream," stating "there's no question that Lionsgate is the right home for Cabin...you look at all the films that inspired Cabin - most of them were released by Lionsgate in the first place!"24 The world premiere was on March 9, 2012 at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas.25 Home mediaedit The Cabin in the Woods was released on Blu-ray in North America on September 18, 2012.26 The Blu-ray features an audio commentary by Goddard and Whedon, a documentary about the making of the film, and a question and answer session at the WonderCon convention.27 Receptionedit Box officeedit The Cabin in the Woods earned $42,073,277 in North America, along with $23,829,690 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $65,902,967.3 The film opened in North America on April 13, 2012, opening with $5.5 million and went on to gross $14.7 million in its opening weekend in the United States at 2,811 theaters, taking the number three spot.2829The Cabin in the Woods closed in theaters on July 12, 2012 with $42.0 million. In total earnings, its highest-grossing countries after North America were the United Kingdom ($8.5 million), France ($2.4 million) and Russia ($2.3 million).30 Critical reactionedit The film received generally positive reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 92% approval rating with an average rating of 7.8/10, based on 230 reviews. It offers the consensus: "The Cabin in the Woods is an astonishing meta-feat, capable of being funny, strange, and scary -- frequently all at the same time."31 On Metacritic, the film achieved an average score of 72 out of 100, based on a rating of 40 reviews, signifying it had "generally favorable reviews".32 Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave a positive review of the film, saying that "The Cabin in the Woods has been constructed almost as a puzzle for horror fans to solve. Which conventions are being toyed with? Which authors and films are being referred to? Is the film itself an act of criticism?" Ebert gave the film three out of four stars.33 Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, calling it "fiendishly funny". Travers praised Kristen Connolly and Fran Kranz for their performances, and wrote, "By turning splatter formula on its empty head, Cabin shows you can unleash a fire-breathing horror film without leaving your brain or your heart on the killing floor."34 Cinema Blend's Editor in Chief, Katey Rich, gave the film 4.5 out of 5 stars and wrote, She praised Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford "in roles that are more fun to discover as you go along - they do get a lot of the best jokes, though, and their scenes show a lot of Goddard's skill in handling the rhythm of a scene."35 Jenkins and Whitford were also admired by The A.V. Club ("Whitford and Jenkins clearly delight in the verbose script") and by Wired, whose reviewer (granting 9 of 10 stars) called Cabin "a smart sendup of horror movies and mythology...with a peculiar relish that testifies to the moviemakers' love of genre film... a smart, sarcastic and deliriously fun journey into the belly of the horror beast." He cited the "witty banter, creative twists" and "clippy, quippy dialog that lifted Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer to cult status."36 Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post, giving the movie 3 of 4 stars, wrote, Eric Goldman, writing for IGN, called the movie "an incredibly clever and fun take on classic horror movie tropes."38 SF Gate said, "The cliches come at an onslaught pace" in "a wonderfully conceived story that gives a bigger than life and fascinating explanation for why so many horror movie cliches exist in the first place... By the time the ride is over, director Drew Goddard and co-writers Goddard and Joss Whedon will change course three or four times, nodding and winking but never losing momentum."39 Of the screenplay by Goddard and Whedon, a CNN reviewer praised "these horror hipsters' acidic, postmodern designs on one of the movie industry's hoariest, least respected staples... the dialogue is always a notch or three smarter and snappier than you'd expect."40 Keith Phipps of The A. V. Club addressed While Cabin pleased horror aficionados, many movie reviewers did not share the wonder. Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly, calling herself "a wised-up viewer," gave the film a "B−" grade and said, "The movie's biggest surprise may be that the story we think we know from modern scary cinema — that horror is a fun, cosmic game, not much else — here turns out to be pretty much the whole enchilada." She shrugged off the talents of Whitford and Jenkins: "These two experienced actors provide the film's adult-level entertainment."42 Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times believed that the film "is an inside joke" and also said, "The laughs the film come easily, the screams not so much."43 David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter''remarked, "It’s just too bad the movie is never much more than a hollow exercise in self-reflexive cleverness that’s not nearly as ingenious as it seems to think."44 A.O. Scott of ''The New York Times said, "Novelty and genre traditionalism often fight to a draw. Too much overt cleverness has a way of spoiling dumb, reliable thrills. And despite the evident ingenuity and strenuous labor that went into it, The Cabin in the Woods does not quite work." Scott added, Rex Reed's New York Observer review for the film46 contains many factual errors when summarizing the plot of the movie, which caught the ire of fans and internet bloggers who questioned his professionalism.4748 Awards and nominationsedit Booksedit On April 17, 2012, Titan Books released the Cabin in the Woods: The Official Visual Companion. It features interviews and behind-the-scenes photos. It also features concept art of unused creatures like the Alien Creature, a Demon, a Fish Man (which resembles the Creature from the Black Lagoon), a Seaweed Creature, a Shark-Like Creature, the Alien, the Butch (a butcher-like monster), the Exterminator (an exterminator monster), the Extraterrestrial, the Hunter (a zombie-like Native American), the Magician, the Pirate, the Surgeon, the Viking, and the Witchcrafter. There was also a mentioning of a Gladiator Demon.59 Alongside this, Titan Books released the mass market paperback The Cabin in the Woods: The Official Movie Novelization, from the author Tim Lebbon and creators Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. The book also mentioned some monsters and representations of real world fear that aren't in the film such as Cracked-Skinned Lava People (assumed to be mini-avatars of the Ancient Ones), a Dog-Headed Alligator, Exploding Shard Babies, a Fire-Mouthed Woman, a Giant Rabbit, a Man with Steaming Pipes in his Chest, a Minotaur, a Monochrome Woman, a Scorpion Stinger Woman, a Screaming Banshee, a Six-Armed Man, a Three-Headed Child, a Toxic Ghostly Figure, a Vagina-Toothed Woman, and a Woman with Snake Pubic Hairs.60 Popular cultureedit * Originally, the video game Left 4 Dead 2 was supposed to also include a downloadable content where the Cabin and the Facility from this movie were going to be included. However, the project dissolved after the film's original production company, MGM, filed for bankruptcy. Drew Goddard commented on what the downloadable content would have included stating: "The game was gonna be amazing. You were gonna be able to play in both the upstairs Cabin in the Woods world and the downstairs 'facility' world with all the monsters."61 * The Cabin in the Woods was parodied in the Robot Chicken episode "Immortal." * The Cabin in the Woods was parodied in Scary Movie 5. * The Cabin in the Woods was announced on June 26, 2013 as the first maze for Universal Orlando Resort's annual Halloween Horror Nights event for 2013.